Macro Lager

STATS

  • Country: Lebanon
  • Style: German Pilsner
  • ABV: 4.2%
  • Serving Type: 330ml Bottle
  • Price: Inexpensive

Just a week ago I didn’t even know that beer was brewed in Lebanon. Then I found this beer glass in a box of beer glasses I bought and some research led me learn about Lebanese beers. By sheer coincidence Dad’s cousin asked me if I’d ever tried Lebanese beer and I jumped at the chance to try some.

So Almaza Pilsner is brewery (funnily enough) by Brasserie Almaza in Beirut, Lebanon. The brewery still retains the French word for brewery as it was opened in 1933 when Lebanon was still controlled by France. The brewery is now owned by the Heineken International Group. It’s also the first middle eastern beer that I have ever sampled, let’s do this.

This is one of the hardest beer glasses to pour a beer into, the shape just isn’t conducive to a nice pour. Anyway the colour is a deep golden with lots of bubbles that rise to the thick white head. The head has quite poor retention considering the apparent carbonation, but while it’s there Almaza Pilsner is quite an impressive looking beer.

What to say about the nose of this beer? Well it’s certainly not inviting, but it’s also not offensive either. It has quite a normal grainy nose with some hints of husk. Towards the back end there are hints of hops, they appear to be of a herbal variety and slightly spicy. I will be interested to see how they taste, as I would like to smell more hops in a German Pilsner.

Almaza Pilsner has more flavour than I expected. The beer starts out with a slightly malty sweetness and a bit of grain. There isn’t a huge amount of hops, but the hops that are there are quite spicy and are indeed of a herbal nature. They provide some bitterness but not as much as I would normally like to see from a German Pilsner, still it’s not a bad tasting beer.

By no means is this an exceptional beer, but I imagine if you were in the heat of Lebanon it would be fantastic! The drinkability is fantastic! Almaza, despite appearances, has only moderate carbonation and this really helps the ease in which this beer is able to be drunk. The flavours are much better than the nose, and although it’s not an exceptional example of the style, it’s pretty good. I certainly wouldn’t be against having it again.

Remember it’s always Beer O’Clock somewhere in the world!